Plaza Drive-In
2140 West Clay,
St. Charles,
MO
63302
2140 West Clay,
St. Charles,
MO
63302
1 person
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One of two drive-ins in St. Charles County owned and operated by Mid America Theatres, the St. Charles Drive-In was the older of the two and opened in 1951 with a capacity of 800 cars. In 1959, it was renamed Plaza Drive-In. It started out with regular main stream movies but during the 1970’s they began showing soft-core porn. This created problems with the residents of St. Charles and some of the city officials. After some time they went back to the main stream movies but to no avail.
The Plaza Drive-In closed in 1983. The screen has been torn down but the entrance and the box office are still standing.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
There is now nothing left of the Plaza Drive-In. Lindenwood College purchased the property and has razed everything so they can add more buildings.
The drive-in opened in July 1951 as the St. Charles Drive-In.
Renamed the Plaza Drive-In in 1959 when Mid-America took over operation.
The address should be 2140 West Clay, not West Clary…
One day a few years ago I took a “tour” of what was left of the concession stand/projection booth. I found in some of the rubble a couple film takeup sprockets from a projector. These became part of a project at work in which I modified a long roll 35mm still camera.
I think I still have one of those spools in my desk somewhere….
You can find quite a few “treasures” in old Theatres.I have a basement full.
In Wehrenberg’s 100th Anniversary book, the Plaza is listed as a theater they operated? Is that true? It had to have been in 1983-84 timeframe and could only have been for a very short time (less than a year), as it closed in either ‘83 or '84.
Let’s just say that was (another) mistake in the Wehrenberg book. My research has shown it was advertised as a Mid-America house from when they took over operation in 1959 (and renamed it the Plaza) until closing night on September 5, 1983.
That’s what I thought, JAlex…I couldn’t remember Wehrenberg ever running that place. Thanks for clearing that up…and thanks for the closing date. That does sound about right.
A slightly blurry picture of the Plaza from 1974 can be seen here: http://www.drive-ins.com/pictures/motplaz001.jpg